In the past, four heroes had to fight separately to end the end of the world. Their names were: Demiurge, Hera, Arani and Leto. Each of them contributed in their own way to end the rapid advance of the end of all life on the planet, whose crops were dead, and the sea level was as low as you can get after a day of rain.
However, behind The Calamity there are many untold stories, many lies, and an event capable of uniting these two things.
The truth is that the heroes fought together, yes, only once. In reality, this meeting took place unplanned, a fluke of fate, or rather, a stroke of luck, after all, since the first irruption there is no defined destination for the world, only billions of paths that lead to an even unknown end by the most powerful being in the world. Anyway, their meeting took place at the Citadel of the End, the home of the demons, and together they managed to decimate the demons, or so they thought.
Humans and half-beasts live between fifty and sixty years if they are healthy, Elves live a little longer, between seventy and eighty years, but have you ever wondered how long a demon lives? Well, most Calamity heroes never asked themselves that and lived happy lives until they finally slept one night and never woke up.
The last hero of the legendary quartet, Arani, was a Templar knight very devoted to his beliefs and also to his repudiation of the existence of demons, so for him it was especially humiliating when he discovered that not all demons were killed or sealed during the attack on Citadel of the End and fled from annihilation. There were demons that lurked in the shadows, and these were certainly the weakest and most cowardly demons of any kind, but their fear wasn't really a bad thing. They waited for dozens of years, cultivating the desire to one day regain their place at the top of the world, and slowly they grew stronger, through the lessons that the strongest demons, now dead, left them.
When Arani found them, he knew that he no longer had the strength he used to have, much less the influence to mobilize an army against the demons, who were still very weak compared to all the power they once had. Arani knew that a fight between them would be futile and that it was probably not the demons' intention to reveal themselves so soon.
As the last hero and only an old templar, Arani knew he had to do something to stop the future advance of demons against humanity. Therefore, he decided to use the strongest item the Four Heroes found in the Citadel of the End: a sphere of condensed mana that emanated a power as great as an entire horde of superior demons. He knew that this would be the only way future humans could defeat the demons.
Still, he couldn't entrust that much power to anyone, not even his own kin, so he divided that power into ten items and added dozens of layers of curses to each one so that only the truly worthy could use such power. Eventually, he scattered such items across the continent of Skoll, inside dungeons, caves, and many other famous places.
Over time, some of these items were found, but both the demons and the demons couldn't tell what those things were. Legends emerged saying that the Cursed Items gave wealth and power to their bearers, on the other hand, rumors emerged that said such items also brought death.
Soon, five of the ten Cursed Items were gathered by the demons and then hidden in a way that only the specific demon that hid them could know where they were. As those things had unknown powers and origins, of course they feared it would fall into the wrong hands, as did Arani.
"Wait, are you saying this thing holds great power?" Luke asked Hazor after hearing the whole story.
"Yea." Hazor said.
[Yes.] The Scale agreed too.
Luke Lange was totally in disbelief, as finding three of the Cursed Items wasn't such a difficult task with Warlley by his side, it just took a bit of time.
"And how do you know all this? Wasn't it supposed to be a secret that only Arani would know?" The half-wolf crossed his arms and looked suspiciously at Hazor.
[He has a centenary degree of kinship with the last hero to die.]
"The blood of Arani circulates in my veins, and it is clear that a part of my Clan passes from generation to generation all his teachings, including about the creation of the Cursed Items. He didn't trust us with the items, but we know of the existence of such a power. This is a weight I have carried for over twenty years alone, and which I now entrust to you both." Hazor explained to the half-beasts.
'Your expository way of talking is considerably more efficient than the old man's.' Luke spoke to the Scales, mentally. "Thank you for telling us all this, but I still have questions. You will answer everything, won't you?"
"It is clear."
"I understand that you said to find the peace the world needs the Ten Servants must die, and that in order to have the power to defeat the other Nine Servants I will need the strength of the Cursed Items, I understand perfectly and do not disagree. However, you still haven't answered me about your relationship with the First Servant." Luke was looking serious and waiting for an honest answer.
Hazor took the liberty of taking a few seconds to think, and in the end he sighed. "I am ashamed to say this, but there is a kind of Council that I belong to, this Council is called the Twelve Thrones."
"Twelve Thrones?" Meredith asked, because Luke had once mentioned it to her during a conversation about Lescar.
"Forget it, it's just the name of a game we had as kids." The half-wolf quickly disguised the half-fox's question.
Although Luke was surprised that Hazor was on the same council as Lescar, he didn't want to reveal that he knew someone else who was in the Twelve Thrones.
"Continue, please." Luke asked the old man.
"It's all right. We of the Twelve Thrones are the people who watch the events of the world and decide which way the world will go. Though I'm the weakest of them all, I'm still the only person in the world who carries the genes of the last of the heroes, so I have a seat to myself. Also, most members of the Twelve Thrones are shadows in society, but there are no stronger people in the world than they are."
Luke kept a straight face and said, "The First Servant is a part of this, so you know each other…"
"Exactly. He is the Seventh Chair, the only demon in history who has ever sat in a meeting with humans." Hazor revealed.
Lescar, the boy who helped Luke find his friends and who also helped him save Ayumi Yamazaki's life during the Council of Nobles, was also a member of the Twelve Thrones, which made the half-wolf wonder who in fact was that boy and why he had decided to help Luke.
"Okay, now tell me. If you are all human and you know the history of the demons of desire for domination and chaos in the world, why have you never done anything?" the half-wolf asked.
"Not all members think demons are a threat. Unfortunately, for the Twelve Thrones to act, a majority must agree, that is, seven members must agree. There have been two meetings in the last year, at the first the request for continued investigation into the actions of demons was denied by 8 to 3 because a Throne did not attend. At the second meeting, we got one more vote, but it still wasn't enough."
"Perfect. I just need to go to one of those meetings, punch the opponent in the face and it's all over, right?" Luke asked after he finished stretching, this time squeezing the fingers of his fists.
"Do you have the confidence to do this? There are people in the Twelve Thrones who are even stronger than the First Servant." The old man said.
Hazor knew Luke was saying it without thinking, but he didn't even like to imagine what would happen to the half-wolf if he tried to act so carelessly.
"There is one who knows how to stop time, another who can suck your soul with a single kiss, and also people who can split mountains in half. The members of the Twelve Thrones have never fought each other because this would be the end of the world, so find evidence about everything the First Servant aims to do, weaken his influence and his army by killing the other Servants, and that way we'll get what we want. ."
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